Sheryl Crow, whose The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow was a multiplatinum hit in 2003, agrees profits weigh heavily: "Part of that is record labels continually try to work their catalogue so they always have money coming in."
But Kevin Gore, executive vice-president of sales and marketing at Rhino Entertainment, which puts out various greatest-hits packages, compilations and boxed sets says a "Best Of Sugar Ray" - which they recently released - is valid.
"At the end of the day, there's a larger audience that will buy a greatest-hits collection...Let's say there are two hit songs on a record from five years ago, and then there are another two hit songs from a record from three years ago," he said. "You have a greater opportunity to bring in a larger audience because you're putting all the hits in one place."
A more critical issue, record companies say, is the decreasing shelf space to carry an artist's catalogue. "If an artist has five or six or seven albums in his or her catalogue, a lot of times many retailers are only carrying two or three. Perhaps songs that were included on albums one, three and five night no longer get the kind of visibility or shelf space that a hits record will provide those particular songs," said Jeff Jones, executive vice-president of Sony BMG's catalogue division Legacy Recordings (whose catalogue releases this year range from Miles Davis to Bob Dylan to...Martika).
Which brings us to the recent Toy Soldiers: The Best Of Martika, the title cut of which was her lone hit single, in 1989. It enjoyed a resurgence after Eminem sampled it on his song "Little Toy Soldiers." Fans searching for the original song may have been out of luck, Jones said. Stores weren't carrying her records anymore, he added. "So without creating a new hits collection, there's no visibility."
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)
It's more that you can create a "Greatest Hits" collection without spending any money on recording songs. So, after manufacturing and song/artist royalties, everything else is pure profit.
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)
As are lots of other greatest hits CDs! Maybe bands like Sugar Ray ad Collective Soul (and Counting Crows and Stone Temple Pilots and Spin Doctors and Soul Asylum etc) should *only* put out greatest hits CDs -- the real question is, what purpose do their "real" albums serve??
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)
dude, "Martika's Kitchen"
This entire shocking expose is now invalidated.
-- rogermexico (tenthreaso...), August 30th, 2005 9:39 AM.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)
Oops. Good fact-checking, AP.
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)
― pappawheelie II, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)
Love, Thy Will Not Have any Pie Unless Thou Finisheth Thy Spinach
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)
-- xhuxk (xedd...), August 30th, 2005.
Add Stevie Nicks, the Buzzcocks, Poison, and John Mellencamp to the list.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)
― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)
Well actually, since Poison's first two albums are really solid, and Mellencamp has a whole bunch of great ones through *Lonesome Jubilee*, they're examples of acts for whom best-of albums are completely pointless. (The Buzzcocks made good albums too, but yeah, *Singles Going Steady* is the only one anybody probably puts on.)
New Order and the Go-Betweens are probably way better examples.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)
It's also cool to hear all in one sitting umpteen years worth of listening.
― Viz (Viz), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)
OTFM!! I can't wait....surely one must be planned now that they are officially done right?
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)
Damn, Eddy....sticking me for my Go-Be's love.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)
― Confounded (Confounded), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)
I've done that once or twice, but more often, I compile the complete collection gradually after buying the best-of (Joni Mitchell, for one, as it took me a while to get her).
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)
― darin (darin), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)
I'm so close to iTunesing one myself. Would prolly cost as much as a CD. With "Crazy In Love" on there too for good measure.
― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)
OTM. The other traditional reason is that they count as an album in terms of a band's "X album deal." In other words, U2 gets signed to a six-album deal. They make five "real" records and then want to put out a best of so that they are finished with the contract and can re-negotiate. I think that Passman guy talks about it in that Everything You Wanted to Know About the Music Biz book.
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)
Seriously, the entire item sounded to me like a satire; specifically, that old article from the Onion, "Product Awareness Increased With 'Advertisement'".
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)